Meeting +Gene Robinson

posted Jul 9, 2012, 11:21 AM by Mel Soriano

I have to be honest – I had an agenda when I met +Gene
Robinson. As a young LGBT person of faith, he has been a personal inspiration
to me for some time, and I was determined to meet him during my stay at General
Convention through the Young Adult Festival I was attending. I had planned how
I would introduce myself should I run into him, and I planned to invite him to
the "Celebrating Young Adult Ministries" reception the following
evening, as many of the young adults attending General Convention had expressed
a desire to meet him.

Jonathan York

As fortune would have it, after a day of
searching, I finally ran into him on the Exhibit Hall floor. I introduced
myself (as I had carefully rehearsed), and began telling him how popular he was
with the young adults and how eager many of us had been to meet with him. His
reaction was immediate – "Can I? I would love to meet them!" I was
blown away by how warm and eager he was to meet me and the rest of the young
adults. Finally having the opportunity to meet someone who has been such an
inspiration to me, and feeling the incredible welcome which radiated from him,
left me reeling for most of the day.

I understand why I have been eager to meet Bishop
Robinson, but I have been quite curious as to why so many of the other young
adults (LGBT or not) have been as well. For many of the actions we are taking
at this Convention, the messages they send are almost as important as the
actions themselves. Each Resolution and budget line we pass (or reject) is a
declaration of who we are as a Church. +Gene Robinson is such a declaration,
and I believe that is why the young adults here at Convention are so eager to
meet him.

Robinson is a declaration of the Episcopal
Church's insistence that the Spirit of God does not discriminate. He is living
proof that Episcopalians throughout the world are beginning to accept their
duty to seek and serve the image of Christ in all people – and that is
something young people (Episcopalian or not, LGBT or not, American or not) are
very excited about; it is something we should all be excited about, and it is
something we would do well to remember throughout this Convention.